Shemberko T. Calendar-ritual folklore of Western Volyn': dynamics of functioning, genres, motifs, poetics.

The thesis is the first attempt at answering topical questions concerning dynamics of functioning, regional specificity of genre structure and the system of motifs of calendar-ritual folklore from Western Volyn' (in particular, Radekhiv district of L'viv region, Horokhiv and Lokachyn ditricts of Volyn' region). The paper presents classification of genres on the basis of calendar-ritual works from certain areas, analyzes quantitative and qualitative relations of genres and motifs in a cycle. The author intends to reconstruct archaic phenomena of such rituals on the territory of Western Volyn' and studies their semantics. Modern "field" calendar-ritual folklore of Western Volyn' has served as a material of research for the first time. Special stress has been laid on the major scholarly approach - constructive analysis of folklore phenomena from certain works to theoretical generalizations.